Geo-location and mobile marketing: Wherever they go, there you are

Sponsored by FollowAnalytics

Since the beginning of time, marketers have understood that location matters. From putting guys on corners wearing sandwich boards to having airplanes dragging message banners, marketers use proximity marketing to snag hot prospects and leads when the moment is hot. Knowing where your customers are has never been easier, thanks to their own smartphone's internal GPS. Now you can target those prospects who are in the same state, city or even the same block as your salesman. Through geo-fencing and iBeacons you can even send a message to them the moment they step inside your store -- or try to lure them out of your competitor's store too.

The flip side? You risk creeping out and alienating your customer base. Don't know where to start? Want that next great idea? Our experts will talk through the basics to master level geolocation triggers through mobile marketing automation in a fast-paced discussion. Register today!

In this webinar, you'll
* Learn the difference between geo-fencing, geo-targeting and geolocation
* Discover the savvy geolocation techniques being used by today's top marketers
* Integrate geo-fencing or geo-targeting technologies into your marketing strategy, regardless of budget
* Understand how competitors may be luring your customers out of your business through their own geo-fencing activities on your own home turf.

Customer loyalty is won with both marketing messaging and customer service that anticipates needs, answers questions, and solves issues on the fly. And a well-integrated, data-soaked AI platform can deliver that perfectly timed, exquisitely personalized customer service with the right message, right time, right place support and communication that leads to big jumps in engagement rates. Not to mention enduring loyalty.

But while integrating AI technology into your marketing automation systems can help build profitable long-term relationships, there are security issues to tackle, privacy issues to consider, and data integration to execute flawlessly.

In this webinar, you’ll:
* Learn how deep learning can help your customers get a "human" through chat
* Cut through the hype around chat bots and learn what really matters
* Understand privacy issues around AI and how it may impact your org's security
* Integrate a successful marketing campaign using chatbot interactions

It takes more than Superman or his Justice League to develop and maintain an effective app monetization strategy. This is especially true in light of a recent report which found that 0.19 percent of all mobile game players contributed 48 percent of revenue. How can one identify the high-spend users while not alienating the remaining percentage that only have potential to spend within the app?

Ideally, one would customize app strategy according to type of user. Better still, each user would have her own strategy. Unfortunately this isn't a scalable solution to monetization.

Nearly $1.5 billion in funding went into over 200 AI companies in 2016, ads powered by IBM’s Watson tech lets users ask questions about the promoted product via voice or text, Google’s RankBrain is changing the business of SEO, and they’ve just announced not only a new range of machine learning APIs, products and upgrades, but a whole new Cloud Machine Learning group.

Let’s call it: It’s honest-to-god paradigm shift, not just an excuse for another round of “open the pod bay doors, HAL” jokes—and it’s one that’s going to inevitably, unavoidably revolutionize marketing to the extent that if you’re not on board, you are going to be buried.

Want to disrupt instead of be disrupted? To learn how to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized, real-time consumer engagement at a significantly lower cost? Join this interactive VB Live event.

With over 1 billion monthly active users, Facebook Messenger is beginning to change the world for companies looking for ways to connect with, engage, and retain an unprecedented number of customers. And we’re guessing that’s probably you.

It’s all because of Messenger’s developer tools, which have leapt on the promise of bots for customer service and native payments without ever leaving the platform--and have thoroughly delivered on it. Users stay cozily inside the Messenger platform to play games, search, shop, pay, and more, meaning they’re fully engaged with your brand in multiple ways in a single brand context.

Facebook’s long-term plan: make Messenger the center of users’ lives. Your short-term plan: start positioning yourself to take advantage of this revolution in messenger tech innovation. Register for this free VB Live event now and learn how you can monetize Messenger.

In this webinar, you’ll:

Understand the broader digital wallet strategy to connect with customers through chatbots
Get valuable tips to spin chatbots into gold
Learn the biggest mistake organizations are making with payments through Messenger

Remember when the experts scoffed at the idea that people would buy stuff with their smartphones? In an industry that reinvents itself every five years, what was once groundbreaking becomes table stakes in the blink of an eye.

Staying ahead of the curve isn’t simply adopting new technology, but reinventing your approach as new platforms and channels emerge. The next wave is about to crest with the advent of wearables, VR, and the Internet of Things. Are you ready to catch it?

In our latest VB Live event, we’re going to smash the myths that are holding your company back, and make some big, audacious predictions about the state of mobile business over the next five years—from 2017 and beyond.

Join industry leaders for a lively hourlong discussion on the future of mobile apps -- and get your real world questions answered live.

In this webinar you’ll:
* Learn which mobile analytics will matter in the next five years
* Understand the ways that KPIs monthly active users (MUA) can be interpreted
* Measure beyond smartphones -- including wearables, connected cars and more.

The rise of instant messaging has created the largest and fastest-growing potential consumer audience ever—and a powerful opportunity to form instant, one-to-one connections between your brand and your customers. According to Juniper research, by 2019, over 160 trillion messages will be sent every year. That amounts to 438 billion messages daily.

Most messages are read within three minutes of being opened—this kind of immediacy is unparalleled in other communications. And IMs can include a stunning variety of contextual, relevant, interactive content, and create conversations, engagement, and a deeply personalized connection that’s never been possible with email.

Join our latest VB Live executive workshop to learn how to leverage the power of instant messaging to form meaningful connections and reimagine how you think about retail, customer service, and the entire customer experience.

By participating in this VB Live event you’ll:
* Learn how to leverage instant messaging
* Capture customer details in IM
* Leverage instant messaging technologies to improve your marketing strategy overall
* Use the high engagement of messaging in terms of viewabilty

Cost per lead. It’s like your basic black dress or suit -- never lets you down and crucial in crunch time. But everything we knew about about lead generation has changed. Marketing now owns most of the IT budget and is on tap for the lion’s share of revenue generation. If we’re supposed to Always Be Closing, the marketing team is on the line to deliver qualified leads with high ROI. That’s where we start to get into trouble.

The new world order has moved way past cost per lead into outcome-based performance. It’s not quantity anymore -- it’s quality. How do you pull your marketing lead generation strategy out of this paradigm? We’re going to walk you through it in this free and interactive executive session with VB’s own director of marketing technology, Stewart Rogers, and his panel of lead generation and demand generation experts.

In this webinar, you will:

* Understand how to move past quantity and generate quality opportunities
* Build the right marketing KPIs for defining lead quality and lead conversion
* Define a conversion strategy that builds retention

Kenny Rogers said never count your money when you’re sitting at the table—but that just means you’re working blind. Data-driven digital marketers need to be constantly tallying up, because you can’t just stay on top of real-time data, you have to start thinking two steps ahead. Simple push tactics of the past have to give way to a dynamic, real-time movement of information, interaction and engagement between your company and your customers.

But if you don’t know how to leverage real-time business analytics to separate essential behaviors from metrics that are mere noise, that incomplete big picture could lead to bad decisions, missed opportunities, and money left on the table.

Join our latest VB Live event for insight into how to pan for gold, and turn information into insight.

In this webinar you’ll:
* Learn how to define the "truth" with metrics, and which version of the truth is meaningful to the business
* Deal with the unpredictable nature of real time data blips
* Frame business analytics into actionable solution-focused priorities for stakeholders

Imagine the holy grail: getting the right message to the right customer at exactly the right time — every time. And what if you could deliver hyper-relevant cross-channel customer experiences that amplify loyalty and result in increased Average Order Value, reduced churn, and increased conversions faster?

As hyper-scalable programmatic technology shifts from the adtech space and into the martech world, organizations are, for the first time, able to leverage predictive scoring on an incredible scale built upon a real-time view of every customer. Leading companies have already implemented user-centric strategies that place an emphasis on marrying systems of record, systems of intelligence, and systems of action to create what is now being called Programmatic CRM.

A recent survey of 506 marketers indicated that 36 percent of respondents reported an increase in sales from buy button integration into social media and email interfaces. That percentage will likely increase in 2016 with 60 percent more marketers projected to utilize buy buttons throughout the year. Selling through social, social commerce, is a hot topic and one to watch as marketers look for more ways to connect with consumers.

Companies use buy buttons and the like within social networks like Facebook to increase their visibility to the consumer, have one-on-one conversations with potential buyers, and make it easier to bridge the gap between consumers and brands. With the insights gained from the analytics provided by various social networks, companies are armed with more data about customers and a greater ability to personalize offerings. Join VB experts and panelists as they suss out trends to watch in the social commerce space.

Attendees at this webinar will learn how to:

* Optimize social selling across social media outlets
* Understand the impacts of increasingly mobile consumers on social commerce
* Unlock sales using social networks
* Find and connect with more prospects
* Leverage the analytics from social sites to gain a deeper understanding of customers

How are you going to reach new players in new regions with your current team and budget? It’s no easy feat, and can be an expensive risk for a new game. You’re stuck between the costs and workload of meeting the needs of new players, and the risks of taking on more infrastructure than your game can support. You might think the promise of the cloud will save the day, but moving from a centralized infrastructure to the cloud can be a massive undertaking, with lots of pitfalls and hidden costs.

Join us for a deep dive into how some publishers are pushing the limits of technology to deliver great multiplayer experiences globally, without having to scale up their server footprint, or launch a painful, time consuming migration to a cloud infrastructure.

In this webinar you'll learn:
* What game mechanics and protocol questions you need to ask when designing your global launch
* What risks to look out for in terms of network stability and reach in different parts of the world
* How to mitigate internet roadblocks from a centralized data center

Digital marketing has become a circus ac. A recent IDG study found that the majority of marketers are juggling at least 6 channels—usually more—and have to continually analyze, optimize, and quantify the effectiveness and investment in each of them.

But without accurate attribution and centralization, you’re constantly off-balance, it’s a long fall for both your campaigns and your ROI. And looking at each channel in silos means missing out on important trends and opportunities.

But all is not lost: In our latest VB Live event, join the digital marketing ringmasters who have harnessed the power of cross channel analytics. They’ll share exactly what it takes to break down the silos, contextualize performance, and back your biggest business decisions with flawless, in-depth analysis.

In this webinar, you'll:

* Learn how to factor in different contexts across channels
* Measure ROI while honoring the platform differences and measures for success
* Craft a rock-solid story to help the C-suite understand the complexity of cross-channel acquisition
* Leverage your cross-channel data to determine your paid media strategy

Stop implementing; start planning. Forrester Research shows that while messaging platform chatbots can be effective, the customer experience is too often unacceptably poor. And while it’s not a big deal when you’re ordering a pizza, the stakes are far too high for financial institutions to go all in on this generation’s chatbot technology without the right planning.

Simply put, being too early can be the same as being wrong. Bots are only as good as the systems behind them — outdated architecture and poor integration can sabotage your services and drive away customers.

But given bot technologies are shaping up to be an essential part of the FI and fintech mix, your next two to three years should be devoted to investing in foundational digital initiatives that will position you to leverage the future that’s coming fast.

Join this free VB Live event to learn how to reap the rewards of future fintech AI innovation — and get it right the first time.

With millions of apps vying for installs, how are the top earning publishers growing and acquiring high quality users at scale, and how do the top channels & formats fit into their strategy? Learn what’s working for the top 100 app install marketers — and what isn’t — during this session revealing the results from the latest App Install Survey.

Chatbots are everywhere right now, but there's a problem. Almost every article is telling you about a particular bot, or the future implications of chatbots. That's fine, but where are the instructions on how to build chatbots, what they can do to help your business, how to set them up for success, and what the market opportunity is?

Look no further as in this session we'll reveal the results of a new study into chatbot usage, detail how to build your own (at any budget), explain why you should care about the bot revolution, and help you take grab a competitive advantage while it still exists. It is time to jump on the bot-wagon, and we'll help you steer the right course.

From this webinar, attendees will learn to:

* Identify and harness competitive advantage
* Understand the bot landscape and the opportunities it presents
* Build your own bot on a budget

Smart marketers know that the sweet spot between AI and the org’s branding is where true customer engagement spikes. It’s not enough to give the customers what they want. It’s about giving them what they didn’t realize they wanted. Like how every time you upload a photo to your Facebook account -- its DeepFace artificial intelligence program suggests that you need to tag your friend. Or how Starwood’s bot butler “Botlr” has not only freed up staff time in Aloft properties but also underlined its brand’s enthusiasm for AI and machine learning technologies.

It’s time to take that AI one step further. We’ll talk about how to build and design the customer experience by using AI and machine learning. We'll show you how successful companies are making tremendous strides in moving the needle toward optimized customer engagement. And what's more, we're going to show you how to get started today by taking the guesswork out of your marketing strategy.

Join us for this hour long deep dive into using AI and machine learning to design the customer experience.

After this webinar you'll:

* Learn how to build a customer engagement strategy from the ground up using artificial intelligence.
* Hear valuable tips on improving your customer engagement now
* Get insight from top execs who have been down this road and have the best advice to design the customer experience. In this VB Live curated hour long workshop.

In an era when analytics and business intelligence allows just about anything to be measured, how do you determine the metrics that matter to your app’s marketing performance? Apps have the potential to drive major value for your company, with the global revenue from mobile apps stores set to reach $52 billion this year. How do you ensure you’re capitalizing on the potential that a popular, engaging app can offer? Avoid analysis paralysis by focusing on a few key performance indicators (KPIs).

Join Gwen Murray, Mobile Marketing Lead at Staples, and Sheila Bhardwaj, Director of Account Management at TUNE, for a webinar that will teach you everything you need to know about mobile marketing KPIs, including how to decide on the right ones based on your goals, app, and business. If you’re a mobile marketer looking to understand which KPIs are available and how to use them, you won’t want to miss this.

By registering for this webinar you'll:

* Learn the most widely used mobile marketing KPIs
* Understand KPIs to target depending on your type of app, goals, and user lifecycle stage
* Know unique KPIs that can help demonstrate value even if not a mobile-first business
* Get action items for your new KPI data geared toward moving the needle for your business
* See how your app stacks up against key industry benchmarks.

Consumers want to be catered to without being stalked. The right degree of email personalization leads to greater brand loyalty and LTV. The overdone personalization approach leads to unsubscribes. But email marketing is more than just opens and click-through rates (though that’s part of it). The right cocktail will give value to consumers while having the side effect of also doubling your open rate.

So how do you get there?

We're going to show you. Stewart Rogers, Director of Marketing Technology, has studied the big and small data around email marketing and has uncovered the tried and true formula for increasing open rate and customer satisfaction. Join us for this free executive roundtable where we will arm you with strategies you can start using to increase your effectiveness.

We know one thing for sure -- three quarters of digital natives want a truly personalized web experience. But most marketers aren't actually personalizing their website and messaging content. Why? Because it's hard. And expensive. And messy. And where do you even start with all the data points?

Machine learning is the key. And simplicity is the exception rather than the rule -- it has to be easy to use or forget it. It's time to stop talking about personalization and start actually using it or risk losing out on the the 80% of consumers who felt that brands were not familiar or only somewhat familiar with their needs.

We're going to sit down with the CEO from the popular clothing retailer WildFang. She will reveal how it increased revenue by personalizing its e-commerce site to target small groups of visitors based on their behaviors (across many channels) and affinities. CEO Emma McIllroy will be joined by Craig Schinn, former digital-marketing leader for an outdoor-clothing e-commerce site, who can speak to the thought leadership for marketing professionals in real-time marketing personalization strategy as well as WildFang's case study in particular as it unleashed the power of machine learning-based website personalization..

In the webinar you will learn how to:
* Increase web conversions and revenue with personalized website marketing
* Use behavior-based audience segments to better target visitors.
* Target customers who are most likely to buy or most likely to churn using data science and advanced machine learning algorithms.
* Use cross-channel customer data to power more relevant website marketing campaigns

Building brand affection is one of the best things you can do for any product. Think about it -- do you ask for a tissue or do you ask for a Kleenex? Do you look for a plastic bandage or do you ask for a Band-Aid? Do you "use a search engine to find out information about your blind date" or do you Google them?

This is more than performance marketing -- which evolved solely to drive transactions and downloads -- this is awareness marketing. And for the games community, it's about getting people to remember and associate an emotion with your game, so they seek it out now -- and later. But brand awareness is hard to measure -- and hard to get your arms around. Many games teams spend little to no budget, favoring the results-focused performance marketing. We're going to show you how to be better than them -- and get the advantage for your mobile game, starting today.

Venturebeat's own CEO Matt Marshall will sit down with execs from the gaming industry such as Seriously's VP of marketing and Eli Danziger, product manager for YouTube Ads as well as the CMO of Smule, Rob Singer. Together, we'll discuss storytelling and brand awareness marketing tips tailored to mobile games today.

In this third installment of our Building Games Communities series, you will:

* Learn how to use YouTube and other channels to drive brand awareness for mobile games;
* Find the right time to invest in brand awareness marketing in your mobile game lifecycle; and
* Understand the right KPIs to measure ROI on awareness marketing.

Founded in 2006, VentureBeat is the leading source for news and perspective on technology innovation. Our news, analysis, and events provide deep context to help executives, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts make smart decisions. We aim to inform and inspire. Led by founder and CEO Matt Marshall, Editor-in-Chief Dylan Tweney, and a team of experienced journalists, VentureBeat covers a range of technology trends — from social to mobile, small business to enterprise, health tech, cloud, games, and more.